For those who follow such things, you know that this year Mardi Gras — “fat Tuesday” — was Feb. 16 and thus Lent began Wed. Feb. 17, running 40 days (but, intriguingly, not including Sundays, which are kind of olly-olly-oxen-free¹ for stuff you “gave up” for Lent.)
Easter-time Argentine Giant (click on pic for glorious full view)
Stay with me here.
With Easter having arrived April 4, the next “liturgical biggie” (to use the formal theological term), is Pentecost Sunday, May 23.Now, the word pentecost means “50th (day)” (like pentagram, a 5-pointed star) because the ancient religiosos liked to do things in multiples of 7. So Pentecost is really the 7th Sunday after Easter, or 7 times 7 days, plus one.
(I like to remember this as Pentecost bringing a “plus-one” to Easter.)
Of course everyone likes to give stuff up for Lent but then what do they do?…just start indulging in smoking, swearing, snacking on Cheetos and eating Spam sandwiches?
This year I decided not to give up my usual cravings for kale, fennel, decoupage, taxidermy, mortal combat, speaking in tongues, hand origami, running headlong into glass doors…yada yada yada.
Instead, I shall be continuing this Lent’s newfound tradition of “Giving up giving up stuff.”²
And to demonstrate my religiosity in this slow walk approach to Whitsunday, sometimes called “the day of the swingin’ Holy Ghost,” I shall be giving up giving up the following items:
- Being a know-it-all
- Showering and bathing every day
- Shining my shoes as if I was going to a fancy party
- Laughing out loud in malls
- Going to malls
- Making snarky Facebook comments
- Making supposedly humorous comments on my sister’s blog
- Walking softly with a big stick
- Highlighting interesting passages in library books
Oh, wait, now I’ve confused myself as to what I’m not giving up! And there’s still four weeks to go before Pentecost.
Maybe I’ll just let you, dear reader, decide which one or two major things I should actually give up for the rest of the season.
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